JANUARY 13 



grown as at present, they are managed as a regular source 

 of revenue. 



More than that, if woodland can be rendered not only 

 regularly remunerative, but a reserve that can be drawn 

 upon in times of special pecuniary pressure, it might 

 prove the very means of preserving that liberal park 

 scenery whereof Englishmen are so justly proud. The 

 King who never said a foolish thing, and never did a 

 wise one, is reported to have described trees as natural 

 excrescences of the earth supplied by Providence for the 

 redemption of needy landowners. English landowners, 

 as a class, perhaps cannot be pronounced needy — at least 

 compared with the same class in many Continental 

 countries, and having regard to their scale of living — 

 but they are very much less affluent than they were 

 thirty years ago. Rents have fallen from thirty to fifty 

 per cent. ; in some districts even more ; and the loss falls 

 entirely on the free income of the landowner, for expenses 

 of management and upkeep go on as before, and rates 

 have risen by leaps and bounds. In addition to all this, 

 the new death-duties have to be faced: two or three 

 successions at short intervals would render most landed 

 estates of moderate size insolvent, or, at all events, bring 

 them to the hammer. The pride of English parks — of 

 all other prides the most innocently ostentatious and 

 extravagant, and yet the least selfish, seeing what enjoy- 

 ment these parks afford to wayfarers and tourists — is 

 seriously threatened. Is it not culpable blindness which 

 restrains their owners from turning to account an obvious 

 source of revenue, and providing the means of meeting 

 sudden drafts upon the capital of the estate which main- 

 tains the park ? 



